In June of this year, the United States Navy ordered thousands of military base guesthouses near American as well as international bases to get rid of the Bible and other religious materials from their rooms. Since then, a public outcry compelled them to reverse the decision.

While the religious materials were removed from the rooms at these guesthouses, they were still available to guests on request. However, American Family Association and Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty together started to protest early August over the Bibles not being available in the rooms, thus leading to a reversal of the Navy’s decision on August 15.

“Now, the Navy’s religious accommodation policies with regard to the placement of religious materials are under review,” said Navy spokesman Commander Ryan Perry.

Until the review is over, all the Bibles, including copies of the Psalms and the New Testament, will be kept inside nightstand drawers in the rooms.

The navy’s former decision was based on a letter sent by the Wisconsin-based secular group Freedom From Religion Foundation, which had proposed that the Navy offer guests Bibles as well as other religious texts including an atheist treatise titled The Born Again Skeptic’s Guide to the Bible.

“The bottom line is that the Navy’s preferential treatment of Bibles … shows an unconstitutional preference for Christianity over all other religions and over nonreligion. We are confident that ultimately the Navy will revise its policy to conform with the requirements of the Constitution, which each Navy service member has sworn an oath to uphold and defend,” said Sam Grover, the atheist group’s staff lawyer.

FFRF is pressuring the Navy as well as the Air Force to remove Bibles from its hotel rooms. In 2012, the Air Force, too, removed the Bible from its guesthouses only to bring them back soon after a similar outcry.

Photo Credit: A Travel Abroad